Porn industry sues ICANN and ICM Registry over .XXX domains

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Domain name registrations are big business. Any time a new top-level domain has debuted, prospectors and companies have lined up to snag premium names — which has driven prices up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases. That’s precisely what happened when .XXX hit the web, and now porn industry giants have decided enough is enough.

In a court filing, a coalition that includes Digital Playground and Midstream Media alleges that ICANN and ICM Registry conspired to monopolize .XXX domain registrations and unfairly drive up prices.

.XXX was pitched as a good thing. It was going to be a way for porn-related domains to segregate themselves in a sort of internet red-light district, where they could be easily identified and avoided by those who don’t want to partake in the web’s seedier side.

For a full decade, ICM Registry — a business founded by several long-time porn industry players — petitioned ICANN to create the new .XXX TLD. ICANN repeatedly shot down the idea, saying that there was no “unmet need.” .COM, .NET, .ORG and the many country-specific domains were working just fine.

Eventually, though, ICANN caved. According to the plaintiffs, it’s because ICM convinced them that the two stood to make piles of cash. With “select” porn-related terms fetching between $200-500,000 and many millions made in the early goings overall, there’s no doubt both are reaping the rewards of .XXX.

Revenues are also shooting up as non-porn businesses and institutions scramble to protect their images. Recently, universities have begun snatching up .XXX domains in an effort to head off potentially nefarious uses at the pass.

ICM has predictably stated that there’s nothing monopolistic about what it’s doing with the .XXX domain, but it’ll be interesting to see how the case plays out. .XXX isn’t like .TV or .LY after all — which are tied to specific countries. It’s more akin to .COM, .NAME, and .MOBI — and loads of different registrars provides domain registration for those TLDs.